Captain Peter Brooks

Growing up in the suburbs of Boston, military service was never a consideration for Peter. He says military service had a stigma attached to it as a “worst-case alternative” for kids who could not get into college. Then came the attacks of 9/11. Peter was a senior at a private boarding school in New Hampshire at the time, but vividly remembers how the “glaring vulnerability of the American way of life” came into focus for him. He enrolled at Harvard and signed up for the Reserve Officer Training Corps his first week there.

After graduating from Harvard in 2006, he joined the Marine Corps and served four years. Admittedly, he was frightened about what his service held in store, but he emerged as a natural leader during two deployments to Iraq. When he left the Marines in 2010 as a Fulbright Scholar, he made a promise to the Marines that he would continue to serve them by working to prevent the needless violence and tragedy that comes from war. This promise has led him to devote himself to what he believes is the greatest challenge the world faces this century: fresh water scarcity.

His goal is to lead an organization dedicated to relieving water-related stress as a way to improve the lives of citizens in the developing world, while also helping to prevent the senseless tragedy of armed conflict. He agrees growing water shortages around the world will undoubtedly be a source of conflict between fragile nations. By helping to improve fresh water management, Peter believes he can help mitigate conflict in volatile, water-deprived areas.